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Written
by Caryl Churchill and performed by NASDA's talented second year students, Mad
Forest centres around the 1989 revolution in communist Romania.

Mad
Forest is the name of a wood near Bucharest. With its oddly twisted trees and near-impenetrability,
it provides a fitting title for this tangled play. Written in the aftermath of
the revolution, Mad Forest explores the corrosive effect of leading a double
life. In the vacuum that follows a revolution, it shows how hopes can be dashed
and ideals compromised, yet it is fresh and vivid.

Central
to the play are two families from different backgrounds, linked by a love
affair. In a series of brief scenes, we see snippets of life under Ceausescu,
from whispered conversations to an abortion negotiated in a scene in which
almost every word uttered is an untruth. Not surprisingly, this is a play in
which silence speaks volumes.